Do you suspect the neighbours? Shropshire police want to hear about suspiciously lavish lifestyles
People in Shropshire are being asked to shop their neighbours to police if their lavish lifestyle does not appear to match their income.
Detectives say they want to root out those living off 'unexplained wealth' – likely to be from the proceeds of crime.
Householders are being urged to report those living in the lap of luxury without the obvious income to match their means.
Officers want to be tipped off when people appear with new cars, expensive clothes or the latest electronic gadgets. They also want to know if neighbours take regular holidays without the visible income to cover the cost.
The initiative by West Mercia Police is being rolled out to tackle organised crime in the wider community, which costs the economy millions of pounds.
A special local policing priority team manned by 14 officers has been put in place as part of moves to identify wrongdoers in the north of the force area that includes Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.
Detective Inspector Mo Lansdale, of Telford CID, who is leading the operation, said: "Organised crime can also be low level in the local community.
"Residents will know of people who drive round in cars with the latest registration, they may have a 60-inch screen television on the wall, all the gadgets, they go eating out all the time or are regularly going on holiday, any may be questioning how they are funding this lifestyle.
Inherited
"It may be that these people have a perfectly legitimate source of income such as a job that others in the community are not aware of, or have inherited money from a family member, but there will be others out there who haven't. These people are not working, or may have a low paid job, and are actually benefitting from crime at a local level or from serious organised crime.
"There might be suspicions about someone who has shop or a business that doesn't appear to be doing that great.
"We have set up a local policing priority team comprising 12 constables and two sergeants to tackle this issue, but we need the help of the community to provide us with the information and intelligence. Activities like money laundering costs the economy millions of pounds and serious organised crime also has a massive impact on the country.
Impact
"We think people in the wider community want to help. We understand that people may feel awkward about reporting their concerns about someone in their area, but it can be done no questions asked."
The team is also working with partner agencies including Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service, Revenue and Customs, trading standards and the Environment Agency to spot potential locations that may be a front for criminal activity.
DI Lansdale added: "It is about us being proactive in the community because the impact such activities have on communities are massive. For example, we are all aware of the impact drug dealing can have on the friends and family of those caught up in it. Crimes involving violence can also be devastating, such as violence against people who owe debts, or people may be involved in people trafficking."
People are being asked to call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or the force on 101."
Fraudster who lived a designer label life
Fraudster Julie Sexton-Blythe was splashing out on designer accessories with other people’s money when the long arm of the law finally caught up with her.
The former accountant, 53, was jailed for five years for helping herself to cash belonging to a leisure centre and a family business.
Today West Mercia Police has launched a new campaign asking for help in uncovering others who, like Sexton-Blythe, feed their lavish lifestyle through crime.
Householders across Telford & Shropshire are being asked to shop neighbours who appear to be splashing the cash when they have not got the visible income to match their spending.
Examples of this may be neighbours on fairly low income or who are struggling but then turn up in new cars or expensive clothes, with the latest electronic gadgets or who may take regular holidays that they cannot afford.
Gulf
In Sexton-Blythe’s case, the gulf between her circumstances and her lifestyle were obvious.
After she was rumbled, police searches of her modest home at Severn Valley Caravan Park and her beauty salon in Bridgnorth High Street uncovered a hoard of designer goods including fur coats, handbags, purses, jewellery and belts.
She carried out the fraud while working for Severn Centre, in Bridgnorth Road, Highley, and at Reliable Stamping, in Birmingham, between 2013 and 2016.
She raked in almost £400,000 in ill-gotten gains which she used to fund her lifestyle. Meanwhile her victims were left in financial hardship.
Her actions were featured on the BBC television series Ill-Gotten Gains which looks at how the justice system recoups illegal income under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
In another case, Ellesmere man David Coughlin, 47, used £314,000 he took from an elderly couple to pay the £2,000 deposit on a new Range Rover, bought wine and meals in pubs, paid £9,000 off his credit card bill, and spent £9,000 on building work at his home. The matter came to light in August 2016 when officers from the Protecting Vulnerable Persons Unit noticed an unusual number of financial transactions on the couple’s account, resulting in Coughlin’s arrest and subsequent jailing. He admitted 26 charges and was jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, gun runner Carlington Grant, nicknamed Mad Dog, and his girlfriend Khianna Lewis enjoyed a lavish lifestyle of luxury holidays and flash cars that were funded by crime.
They lived off the sales of at least 43 pistols and 1,160 blank cartridges shipped in from France.
The crime made them an estimated £100,000-plus a month until a police surveillance operation on Albanian cocaine gang members in August 2016 recorded a gun deal taking place.
Two replica Glock pistols and 12 rounds of converted ammunition were seized, with ballistic experts linking them to Grant’s ad-hoc workshop.
Grant, 41, of Wolverhampton, was jailed for a total of 26 years.
